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diff --git a/58935-0.txt b/58935-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..02519ba --- /dev/null +++ b/58935-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,628 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 58935 *** + + + + + + + + + + The Causes of + Prostitution + + + JAMES P. WARBASSE + + [Illustration] + + Reprinted from the + TWENTIETH CENTURY MAGAZINE + of July, 1912 + + + + + THE CAUSES OF PROSTITUTION + + The wonder is that there is not a greater degree of public + appreciation of the prostitute-making conditions + which society harbors because it foolishly + thinks that it profits by them. + + + By JAMES P. WARBASSE + + +A prostitute is a woman who offers her body for hire to men for their +sexual pleasure. Sexual promiscuity on the part of women, not practised +for money, does not constitute prostitution. Nor does the mere granting +of sexual privileges for money constitute prostitution; if it did, women +who marry for money would fall within this class. Prostitution means +promiscuity for hire. + +We should approach its study with sympathetic minds. The prostitute in +America is likely to be a weak character who has fallen a victim to the +vicious conditions which society maintains. The glamor and gayety, which +flippantly are spoken of as associated with her traffic, really do not +exist for her. Her lot by no means is a happy one. She reconciles +herself to this life usually because her mind is empty of better things. +When once engaged in prostitution, it is difficult for the woman to +escape from it unless powerful social forces are brought to bear. + +The specific causes which prompt women to enter this traffic may be +classified as follows: (I) those affecting both sexes, (II) those +affecting first the male, and (III) those bearing especially upon the +female. + +Before proceeding with an enumeration of causative factors, let it be +noted that the two fundamental causes are (a) sexual lust on the part of +men and (b) poverty on the part of women. The other causes which will be +given are subsidiary to these two. Anything that makes for sexual +looseness, that breaks down the fiber of sexual morality, makes for +prostitution. We may even go so far as to include all agencies which +provoke sexual excitement. Among these are many contributing conditions, +some predominated by good, some by evil. Thus, as sexual excitants, on +the one hand is music, with a maximum power for good and a minimum power +for evil; and on the other, alcohol, with a minimum power for good and a +maximum power for evil. An analysis of the causative factors is not +complete unless it takes into account these secondary influences. + +I. A chief subsidiary cause common to both sexes is _defective +education_, which is responsible for ignorance of the simple principles +of sexual biology, sexual hygiene, and sexual disease. Boys and girls +growing up, first learn of these things from their vulgar companions, +stumble into love, courtship, and marriage, blundering and groping--all +because they have been denied instruction in one of the subjects which +are vital for their health and happiness. Venereal diseases and sexual +sins are augmented because of the ignorance which prudishness insists +upon. Women fall; men patronize the prostitutes, contract gonorrhea and +syphilis, and carry them to their wives, because of this ignorance; and +society reaps wretchedness and vice. + +Were girls told the dangers of extra-marital sexual congress--how it +ultimately means either pregnancy or venereal disease--and could they +know the meaning and consequences of these two conditions, from both +physical and social standpoints, the ranks of the prostitutes would be +much depleted. + +Many a girl would not have made her sexual mistakes had she been +advised. It is not because there was not time in the home or school to +teach her a little practical sociology. No, there was time to teach her +many other things of minor importance. In fact, it will always be found +that these girls have zealously been taught many things that are not +true, and that would be of little service to them if they were true. The +reason the girl was not given this useful information is that for two +thousand years the "pleasures of the flesh" have been regarded as evil. +It has been droned out by sad-voiced prelates that "man is conceived in +sin." This wretched dogma has made its impression on the human heart; +mothers and fathers are loath to speak of these sinful things to the +young; and their girls grow up ignorant, and go into prostitution for +want of the saving information. + +Another defect of education is that which exalts prudishness under the +guise of modesty. The draping of the body, to hide its parts from view, +had its origin in Christendom in the doctrine that "the flesh is evil." +Instead of hiding the body, this practice has directed attention to the +covered parts. The vision of imagination has penetrated all draperies, +and carried with it the lascivious sense which the unobstructed eye +would not. Sensuality has been promoted rather than suppressed. The +exhibition of the naked human body is the beginning of sexual morality. +Unnecessarily to cover and screen it from vision is to insult it with +shame which it does not deserve, proclaim it as evil, and direct +attention to its more specialized sexual parts. + +II. Of the causes which operate first upon the male factor, (1) _the +double standard of sexual morals_ is most important. It prompts men to +employ the prostitute. They demand her as a masculine right. (2) +_Deferred marriage_ is another element. The causes of deferred marriage +are largely economic, and rest upon the disproportion between wages and +the cost of living. The wage-earning class is mulcted of most of the +material wealth it produces. Men are paid neither their just wage nor +enough to warrant assuming the responsibilities of marriage. The social +system which bestows upon the non-producing class most of the wealth +produced by labor is guilty of withholding from the man the bride to +whom his industry entitles him. (3) _The inability to regulate +satisfactorily the number of offspring_ is also a potent factor. This, +coupled with the superstition against copulation during pregnancy and +lactation, drives married men out of the home to seek sexual +gratification. + +(4) The widespread belief among men in the need of sexual exercise as a +preservative of health is a strong influence in the promotion of +prostitution. The idea of the _sexual necessity_ for men has been +refuted by many students of these problems; but those who want to +believe in it continue in the majority. Still it is not difficult to +show that more men have their health damaged by prostitutes than have +received benefit from their administrations. + +(5) _Alcohol_ is the great promoter of sexual lust. Investigators who +have questioned many men upon this subject have found that a large +proportion of them made their first sexual mistakes while under the +influence of alcohol. Young men are especially prone to seduction when +intoxicated. Alcohol inhibits the action of the will, benumbs the moral +sense, and stimulates the sexual passions. No other poison plays so +strong a rôle in the promotion of sex immorality. + +(6) The _absence of good feminine society_ in the circles of youth is a +factor. Social contact with high-minded women satisfies the craving for +feminine society and deters young men from seeking the society of the +opposite type of women. A boy who has friendships among good women is +apt to be ashamed to go among the lewd. + +(7) The _unlovable_ wife encourages prostitution. She may be sexually +unattractive to the husband because of disease, pregnancy, fear of +pregnancy, or coldness. The husband may be responsible for any or all of +these causes; but still he patronizes the other woman. + +III. Of the factors that bear directly upon the female, the most +important is (1) _poverty_. It is not only a primary cause of +prostitution, but also a secondary cause, running into the other social +conditions. In the United States are 6,000,000 women wage-workers, +employed in the gainful industries. In New York City are 300,000 +wage-earning women, living upon the brink of starvation. The wages which +they earn scarcely provide them with the meager necessities of life; of +the joys of life they have but little. Many of them cannot live upon +their wages and must supplement them from other sources; many have +others depending upon them. + +Studies of the problem show that wages are regulated by the cost of +subsistence. Workers are paid as little as they can exist upon and still +be fairly efficient, capital demanding that the pay shall be so near the +starvation limit that the workers shall live in fear of want. The +interests of capital also demand that there shall at all times be an +unemployed class seeking employment. + +Most of the money in this great country which is bequeathed by the +wealthy to care for damaged human beings has been wrung from those very +same human beings who were sacrificed for its production. The curse of +capitalistic greed is a basic factor in the social evils, and they will +exist so long as the right to exploit human beings is tolerated by +society. + +August Bebel illustrates the relation of prostitution to wages by the +report of the Chief Constable of Bolton, England, showing that the +number of young prostitutes increased more during the English cotton +famine, consequent upon the Civil War in America, than during the +previous twenty-five years. Read the pitiful records of the women who +were driven by destitution to sell themselves as reported in Sanger's +"History of Prostitution." Of 2000 prostitutes investigated in New York, +525 gave destitution as the cause of their going into that life. This is +the largest number under any one cause. But poverty can be read into the +others. "Drink," "seduced and abandoned," "ill-treatment by parents or +husband," "as an easy life," "bad company," "violated," "seduced on +emigrant ships," "seduced in emigrant boarding-houses"--these cover most +of the other causes, and all have poverty and bad economic conditions at +their base. + +Whether it is because of lack of employment or because of the easier +means of livelihood which prostitution offers, the earning of a living +is the basic factor. A social condition which insured every woman and +every man an opportunity to earn a decent living, and which segregated +and provided for the few incompetents and moral derelicts, would have no +prostitution. There might be women who would indulge in promiscuity or +would be licentious, but they would not be prostitutes. + +Rich women are not prostitutes, because their livelihood is assured +them. Prostitution is largely an economic problem. A woman who has been +given the information which every woman should have, and who is not +pathologic, does not barter her chastity for money except as a matter of +economic expediency. + +Edmond Kelly says: "Chastity ought to be a purely moral or social +question, not an economic one." Quoting also from the same source a part +of the report of Miss Woodbridge, secretary of the Working Women's +Society: "It is a known fact that men's wages cannot fall below a limit +upon which they can exist, but women's wages have no limit, since the +paths of shame are always open to them. The very fact that some of these +women receive partial support from brothers or fathers and are thus +enabled to live upon less than they earn, forces other women who have no +such support either to suffer for necessities or seek other means of +support." + +Out of these conditions grow the low wages of shop girls and operatives. +But even though not driven to it by poverty, the girls who leave the +factory for prostitution cannot be blamed. Human automatons, fastened to +whirling wheels, consumed by monotonous, soul-destroying days of toil, +crawling at night into unlovely beds, crawling forth at break of day to +toil again, dull and stolid, with hope half smothered--toiling slaves, +who would begrudge them narcosis, death, or prostitution? The wonder is +that there is not a greater degree of public appreciation of the +prostitute-making conditions, which society harbors because it foolishly +thinks that it profits by them. + +(2) _Crowded tenements_ belong with the economic factors for only the +direst poverty would compel the acceptance of the low standard of living +which they impose. They mean absence of true home life, unhygienic +conditions, squalor, and lack of privacy. One-thirteenth of the +population of New York lives at a density of over 600 to the acre. There +are one hundred and five blocks having a density of over 750 to the +acre. If everybody lived under such conditions, all the people of the +world could be accommodated in the state of Delaware. This is not for +lack of land, for it would be possible to have in New York City over ten +million people with a density of only 50 to the acre. Many apartments +have from three to five occupants per room. In the Borough of Brooklyn, +New York, there were in 1911, 127,000 dark rooms, and 50,000 wholly +without windows or any other opening except a door. Poverty causes +congestion, and congestion tends to loss of self-respect, to immorality, +and to sexual irregularities. The records of our children's societies +show to how appalling a degree the chastity of little girls is being +sacrificed in the dark halls and crowded rooms of the tenements. + +(3) _Child labor_ is one of the demoralizing products of our +civilization. There are 2,000,000 children wage-earners in the United +States. That means children who are denied adequate schooling and free +play. They are forced into the mills and factories and tied up to +machines. Their minds are dwarfed, their bodies stunted--all for "the +hallowed privilege of working for a living." Consult the findings of the +U. S. Bureau of Labor, read John Spargo's "Bitter Cry of the Child," +peruse the reports of the National Consumers' League and of the National +Child Labor Committee, and decide if we are not creating prostitution +out of the blood and flesh of children for the money there is in it. Any +condition which makes for moral and physical deterioration makes +ultimately for prostitution. + +(4) The _profits of vice_ promote the traffic in women. Women must be +got by fair means or foul in the interest of the business. Pimps, +police, politicians, proprietors, cadets, madams, and white slavers--all +demand girls. In Newark, Ohio, the people imposed a license of $1000 +annually upon each saloon. Enough liquor could not be sold, by every +effort, to satisfy the license fee--eighty saloons in a town of 25,000 +inhabitants, one saloon to every 65 adult men. Boys had to be made +drunkards, gambling had to be added, for the people wanted the $80,000 +annually. The burden became so great that the saloons were forced to +organize houses of prostitution to help raise the money. By combining +these two splendid cooperative business features the town affairs +flourished.[1] The story is the same everywhere in America; so long as +there are profits to be made in prostitution, the great spirit of +business enterprise will demand and secure the bodies and souls of women +for exploitation for profits. + + [1] "The Thin Crust of Civilization," by Ray Stannard Baker, in + _American Magazine_, April, 1911. + +Raines Law hotels, excursion steamboats with rooms to rent, massage +parlors, and landlords, all offer inducements for the encouragement of +prostitution. The prostitute often pays for protection; she pays extra +rent to the landlord, fees to the janitor, and a stipend to her +protector; she induces men to drink, which gives a profit to the liquor +trade; she uses cabs and the telephone much at night; and it is such +business interests as these which often connive to share her profits. + +(5) _Lack of opportunity for the woman who has violated society's +conventions_ helps recruit the ranks. A man and a woman together may +violate the law of sexual conventionality, the man is received in +society, the woman is cast out forever. Here are some of the reasons +given by women for entering prostitution: "My lover betrayed me, and I +could not go back home." The lover (_sic_), of course, could go back +home. "My father refused to let me stay in the house when he learned +that I had been raped, for that was what it was." The father continued +to regard himself as good enough to stay in the house. "My brother told +on me to my father and he turned me out." Who is my brother? is a +pertinent question here. "My stepmother turned me out when she found +that I was about to become a mother." This girl was a child of sixteen +when thus cast out. These suffice. Society makes prostitutes by +regarding such women as irretrievable sinners rather than as victims of +its own sins. + +(6) _Social inequalities_, which prompt girls to covet the fine raiment +and jewels that other women display, is a factor of importance. This is +noteworthy because of the fact that most of the display of this sort +made by the rich is prompted not by an inherent love of the beautiful, +but by the pleasure derived from the consciousness of exciting envy in +the minds of others who are less fortunate. So deeply fixed is this +feeling of pleasure in creating envy, on the one hand, and the desire +for emulation of the rich, on the other, that the evidences of +conspicuous waste among the former class and of tawdry imitation among +the latter class give to feminine raiment sundry characteristic and +bizarre features. Many a poor girl covets these silly externals above +all else. An image of man, in the guise of a lover, offers them to her; +and she falls. She reads in the great metropolitan press every day of +the sensual indulgences of women who have diamonds, automobiles, and lap +dogs, and she feels that there is, perhaps, some connection between the +practices and the possessions of these people. The influence of the +newspaper notoriety of sexually loose women is confirmed by the stage +and the novel, which present to impressionable girls, women of this +character in the light of heroines. + +(7) The _absence of good, wholesome, family life_, especially in cities, +causes prostitution. The majority of girls in the great American cities +have no home life worthy of the name. At night they seek the streets, +and find there, in the dance-halls, and in the cheap shows, the +pleasures which the home fails to supply. In New York are three hundred +dance-halls. The decent ones are so few as to be negligible. Nearly all +are demoralizing to the girls who frequent them. Here the pimp, the +spieler, and the cadet ply their trade. The conditions are the same in +all of our great cities. Of the first thousand girls sent from New York +City to the Bedford, N. Y., Reformatory, the majority stated that they +took their first downward step in connection with the dance-halls. These +institutions are allies of the liquor traffic, and business interests +are served by them. + +Mothercraft is a neglected science. Not enough of those who give birth +to children, "mother" them. Girls are not growing up with the +companionship of intelligent mothers. The blame is not the girls'. Girls +cannot be expected to care for the companionship of empty-minded +mothers. + +(8) _Seduction in young girlhood_ is a common result of defective +education, deficient mothering, and the unlovely domestic and economic +conditions incident to the slums. + +(9) _Unhappy childhood_, due to unkind parents, intolerable restraints +of the puritanic household, and uncongenial toil imposed upon the child, +are factors of moment. + +The most tragic phase of prostitution is to be found in those girls who +are (10) _driven into it_ by parents, guardians, or husbands, as a +matter of business. There is a class of men living in idleness in our +cities who are supported by the wages of the prostitutes whom they have +created by seduction. Under marriage, or the pretense of marriage, these +men ruin their victims, install them in houses of prostitution, and +appropriate for themselves their bitterly earned wages. Girls are often +lured from good homes by them; and many of the murders and suicides +which entertain the patrons of the daily press are supplied from this +form of enterprise. + +(11) _Servants seduced_ by the master of the house or his sons swell the +ranks of prostitution. The intimacies of domestic life make this one of +the prolific causative factors. Girls in domestic service fall easy +victims also to other men, because they live in an environment in which +the incompleteness of their own lives is daily manifested to them. Of +the first thousand girls admitted to the Bedford Institution, 430 gave +their occupation as general housework. + +(12) The _lack of social democracy_, whether in the home or shop, often +makes the position of the wage-earner intolerable. The humiliation to +which the domestic servant is subjected in many homes renders +prostitution attractive to her. If every mistress would put on the +servant's garb and go through the servant's life for just one day each +year, a lesson in human sympathy might be learned that would help to +sweeten human intercourse. If the mistress could be made to realize that +the servant is a human being who is possessed of the same longings as +she and suffers from the lack of their gratification just as she does, +the domestic relations would be improved. Sometimes a servant retaliates +for the slights, and evens up the social situation, by winning the +master's love. But the life lived by many a domestic servant justifies +no blame if she prefers to venture upon prostitution. + +(13) _Alcohol is the seducer's ally_. A large proportion of the +involuntary prostitutes are seduced by being first made drunk. This is +the prevalent method in the saloon dance-halls. The dance music plays +for a few minutes; the intervals between dances are much longer; the +girls who do not drink are ordered out; a girl who has drudged in a +sweatshop or factory all day must have some pleasure; and the home does +not offer it. The social drinking also of alcohol among women and girls +breaks down moral resistance. If the great slothful public could have +driven home to it the relation of alcohol, not to poverty and crime, but +just to sexual wrongs, it is inconceivable that it would not rise up and +cast it out. + +(14) _The inadequacy of public recreations_. Education has been +socialized, it is no longer of much private profit; but recreation, +which comes next in importance to education for the young, is still +largely commercialized. We are just beginning to provide recreation +facilities as a public duty; but the wider socialization of recreations +is one of society's most urgent needs. + +As a number of causative factors have been mentioned which play a lesser +rôle, and as many factors have been mentioned which are not wholly bad, +this résumé cannot be complete without a reference to (15) _religion_. +The fact that the great religions can be traced back to the worship of +the creative and life-giving principles, as exemplified by the sun and +the sexual organs, that prostitution was at one time a religious rite, +and that at present the sexual emotions play a strong rôle in the +perpetuation of these rites, renders it but natural that there should be +a relation between the two. Religious emotion and sexual emotion are +closely related. Religious fervor is a manifestation of sexual lust. + +When we come down to the dominant religion of the western world we find +that its literature, the Bible, contains recountals of nearly all types +of sexual crimes, among which are the most revolting. This, from a +historic or scientific standpoint, is not objectionable; but the fact +that the halo of sacredness is thrown about the men who committed these +immoral acts, that they are held up as being "after God's own heart," +that Christendom and Jewdom name their children after them, and that +their pictures adorn the temples and the market-places, bears witness +that they are approved of men. + +It is to be regretted that so much of salaciousness, of degrading +obscenity, and of brutal lust is embraced in a literature employed for +purposes of moral teaching. The fact that men and women find excuses for +their own laches in this literature is not to be wondered at. Sexual +sinners often quote the Bible as though it were written specifically for +their benefit. + +The sexual excitement and immoralities engendered by such factors as the +revival and camp-meeting are not to be overlooked. These primitive +institutions are passing into history, but among the less enlightened to +whom they have been transmitted, they continue to be sexual orgies. The +woman who in ecstasy exclaims, "Do what you will with this poor vile +body, but my soul belongs to Jesus," possesses faith which represents a +dangerous and immoral religious fervor. A long period of connection with +a religious denominational hospital has taught me that a pitifully large +number of sexually ruined and venereally disabled young women are +produced in the atmosphere of the choirs of the churches of this +denomination in the small towns of the East.[2] + + [2] See such works as "Sex Worship" by Howard, "Religion and + Lust," by Weir, "Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian + Symbolism" by Inman, etc. + +(16) The _police courts_ send women into prostitution by an unwise +system of fines and penalties. A girl is brought in by a policeman, +charged with vagrancy, disorderly conduct, or some other indefinite +offense (which often means simply having refused to be blackmailed), and +the judge sentences her to pay a fine or go to the workhouse. How does +this operation affect prostitution? If, being a prostitute, she pays the +fine, she goes out on the street again with renewed zeal to get a man to +recoup the loss which she has just paid into the treasury of the people. +If, being a prostitute, she goes to the workhouse, the brothel which is +deprived of her services goes about it to replace the vacancy by another +girl (here come in the pimp and the procurer). If she is a young girl or +a first offender, she often is thrown into a cell with some criminal +women who make her lose what self-respect she has left, and when she is +returned to society it is with resentment, depravity, and the feeling +that she has sunk too low ever to hope to rise again, and she proceeds +upon the path toward which the finger of society points.[3] In New York +66 per cent of the women arrested when they come before the judge are so +disposed of that they may at once return to the street. A more humane +treatment of these unfortunates is beginning to be adopted in some +cities; but crimes against them will continue to be committed so long as +the courts are the ante-chambers to penal methods. When the courts +become chambers for scientific diagnosis and judgment, for discovering +the nature of the ill from which the girl is suffering, for determining +the real cause of her illness, and for prescribing the treatment +necessary for her care--in other words, for social justice, then we +shall make progress. + + [3] See the case of Sophie Hirsch, N. Y. _Call_. 20 April, 1911. + +The insane were once treated by throwing them in chains into a dungeon; +the sick were once supposed to be bewitched and possessed of devils; +criminals and prostitutes are still treated in conformity to the ancient +superstitions; but a better day is to dawn when the light of science and +humanity will be shed upon their misfortunes. + +Besides economic and social causes of prostitution, there are causes +which may be called pathologic. (17) _Alcoholism and syphilis in the +parents_, causing physical and moral deterioration in the offspring, are +important. (18) _Ill health_ should not be overlooked. Often there is +pelvic disease, producing abnormal libidinous impulses; or there may be +central nervous disease; or glandular disease affecting the internal +secretions; or other physical ailments making for instability. Some +women have given as a reason physical inability to perform ordinary +laborious work whereby to earn a livelihood. + +Finally may be mentioned that peculiar, ill-defined condition, called +(19) _degeneracy_. In this class are the women of abnormal and defective +mentality. Anyone who has talked much with prostitutes recognizes this +as a not inconsiderable class. The shallow intellect, the perverted +points of view, and the absence of sense of responsibility, characterize +many of these women. The prevalence of hysteria is well known. At +Bedford, among the first thousand admissions were 137 girls who were +classified as "feeble-minded." The sexual perverts and the women of +abnormally lustful tendencies belong largely in this class. These are +the women who actually become prostitutes because they like it. But it +should not be lost sight of that their mental and physical perversions +can often be traced back to hereditary and educational wrongs, often +born of bad economic conditions. Heredity is undoubtedly a strong +factor; mental unbalance is transmitted. + +In many cases this weakened moral and mental tone makes of the girl a +voluntary prostitute. Neither poverty nor alcohol nor seduction plays +any rôle. She is the seducer from the beginning. Moreover, this tendency +toward prostitution, displayed by these girls who are mentally +deficient, enters largely into combination with the other causes. Such a +girl, under the influence of the excitement of alcohol or religion, or +under the stress of poverty or the promise of fine raiment, loses her +sexual self-respect forever; whereas a girl of better mind, under the +same circumstances, retains hers. The latter woman has a better idea of +what is right and expedient; she finds some way out without the +sacrifice of her chastity; and when she does give herself up to sexual +love (marriage unsanctioned by society), she still retains her +self-respect and is not prone to drift on to prostitution. The sexual +urge alone in a woman of fair intelligence does not in America make a +prostitute of her; in some European countries it may. + +The women in whom the sexual urge is intense become prostitutes if +mentally deficient; if mentally strong they marry--conventionally or +otherwise. If they do none of these things they must plunge into +absorbing work, or they are destined to become intoxicated and destroyed +by their own uneliminated products. + +It is to the mentally or morally weak that the arguments of the female +procurer appeal. This woman tells the girl of the easy way to make +money, the easy life, good clothes, good friends, and good times. The +simple girl falls, particularly if she have behind her any of the other +great causative factors to drive her on. Often the mental and moral +weakness may be a matter of ignorance--defective education rather than +heredity. These are the pathetic cases in which it is clear that the +word of warning should have been a part of the girl's education. + +It should be borne in mind that prostitution is recruited from those who +once were sexually clean. Many of these women once cherished hopes of +love and the domestic joys. Prostitution was not their ambition. Men +made it easy for them to fall; and, having fallen, men and women made it +difficult for them to rise. They are entitled to the same consideration +as are the victims of typhoid fever. Society is guilty in both cases. +Prostitution and typhoid are products of vicious social conditions; both +are preventable. + +Let us not with smugness deny this woman as our sister, for she is; and +we have wronged her. She has a better right to reproach us than we have +to scorn her. Our guilt is greater than hers. There was a great fire in +a factory in New York City. One hundred girls were burned to death or +hurled themselves from windows to be crushed and mangled upon the +structures below. The women who ply the trade of prostitution are as +guiltless of their own destruction as were these poor girls. Their blood +is upon society with its greed for money, its apathy, ignorance, +indifference, active participation in crime, and its exploitation of the +weak. + +Let us cease to cry with self-assumed virtue, Spare us from +contamination by the prostitute who brazenly has come among us. Let us +be honest enough and decent enough to confess: We are guilty; we have +made this woman what she is; she is ours. Let us first be just to her; +and then let us see to it that no more of our daughters walk in her +footsteps. + + [Illustration] + + + + + THE + + Twentieth Century Magazine + + COSTS ONLY + + ONE DOLLAR A YEAR + + * * * * * + +The TWENTIETH CENTURY MAGAZINE is devoted to progressive democracy, a +review of the trend of the times--in the light of day after tomorrow. + +The TWENTIETH CENTURY MAGAZINE is edited by Charles Zueblin, one of the +most fearless and far-sighted disciples of the Common Life. + +The TWENTIETH CENTURY MAGAZINE is published in the interests of its +readers and is supported by its circulation, not its advertising income. +It is radical, independent and fearless, with the broad scope of vision +that such qualities imply. + +The TWENTIETH CENTURY MAGAZINE is well printed, and handsomely +illustrated--a magazine well worth keeping in a form that is meant to +keep. + +The TWENTIETH CENTURY MAGAZINE is unique in its field, in its excellence +and in its low price. + +A subscription will convince you--as it has convinced and satisfied +thousands of others. + + * * * * * + +THE TWENTIETH CENTURY COMPANY, + 5 Park Square, Boston, Mass. + + +Enclosed find $1.00, for which please send me the TWENTIETH CENTURY +MAGAZINE for One Year, commencing with the ....... number. + + + Name.............................. + + Address........................... + + .................................. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The causes of prostitution, by James P. Warbasse + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 58935 *** |